Attorneys wonder if law firm break-in was politically motivated

Attorneys at a Texas law firm are wondering if a recent break-in could have been politically motivated.

Hence, the partners of Schulman & Mathias have contacted not only Dallas police about the burglary at their firm but also the FBI, according to a Fox 4 News video and the Raw Story.

They are suspicious that something other than simple greed motivated the crime, because no one else in their high-rise office building was targeted; only computers were taken; and the thieves broke into a locked filing cabinet. A nearby business with an unlocked door was reportedly undisturbed, while the culprits cut through drywall to gain access to the law firm from a vacant area of the building. Surveillance footage shows the apparent culprits, a man and a woman, walking out the door carrying computers.

Schulman & Mathias represents whistleblowers in cases against the federal government, the law partners note.

In a Sunday interview with Foreign Policy (sub. req.), attorney Cary Schulman said he thinks the firm was targeted for political reasons.

“It’s clear to me that it was somebody looking for information and not money,” he told the magazine. “My most high-profile case right now is the Aurelia Fedenisn case, and I can’t think of any other case where someone would go to these great lengths to get our information.”

Fedenisn, who formerly worked for the Inspector General’s office at the Department of State, says it did not pursue some cases because senior officials called off the watchdog agency, as earlier CBS News and USA Today articles detail.